iebanehita:




I have always been a silent follower. Maybe I would start commenting often.

Well, we all can't wait for you to be back.

I'll appreciate it if you comment more often.

I'll be back very soon.

'VERY SOON'........U SAID!

vantee....we re in gr8 suspense....help us out

V.T ar u done wf ds story, its bin a while u update

pls dnt abandon dis story.biko!.i really can't wait 4 continuity

Reserved. . .

Hmmm

(Enters thread panting heavily)

Okay, Merry xmas to you all (although there is nothing merry about the christmas until I start seeing you gifts ).

Okay, I'm giving this thing another trial. If you are seeing this then it means the update has not been hidden like the previous ones I attempted.


CHAPTER EIGHT
"Give it to me," The witch commanded in a pleading voice. Does that even make any sense? Well, that was how it registered in Marcus' foggy head as he stared with blurry eyes at the terrifying figure before him.

The witch had a ghostly white, feline face with her hair a la Gorgon Medusa. Her mouth was bloodied and the red liquid constanly dripped from the corners of her black cavernous
mouth onto her white flowing
robe.

Without her directly mentioning it, Marcus knew she was talking about his soul. How he came about that knowledge, even he did not understand. "No, I won't."

"Come on. I will give you fame, glory, power, wealth and everything you so desire if only you give this one thing I want."

"No!"

The Witch was fast losing patience. "What else do you want? I'll make you third in command in the new empire after myself and the emperor. . ."

"Don't do it, Marcus. Don't," A gentle, mellifluous voice came from beside him.

Marcus cocked his head to see who had spoken and he was shocked to see who it was; Helena. She tied to a stake just
like himself. Half her face was lacerated while the other half
remained as beautiful as he
remembered it.

"Helena! Why. . . How. . What happened?" Marcus spewed his question, wondering what she was doing there and why he had not noticed her presence before then.

"Just don't accept anything she says. She is evil," Helena warned him.

"What do you say young man?" The witch demanded.

"I'm not selling my soul. Not for any price."

The witch stamped her foot angrily on the floor. "I knew you wouldn't agree, silly boy. Very well, the both of you will die for this foolishness."

"Negirrel!" The Witch howled, exposing her brown canine teeth and her blood red serpentine tongue in the process. The monstrous creature immediately appeared from the blue.

"Kill them!" The witch pronounced with venom.

The Negirrel charged at them, baring its deadly fang as it came closer and closer.

"Noooooooooo!" Marcus and Helena screamed in unison.

Marcus woke up with a violent jerk. He sat up on the bed, drenched in sweat and panting heavily. He took a few moments to get his bearing after which he buried his face in his palm and ruminated on the dream.

The dream was not a very strange one. It was the same dream he had always had for as long as he could remember. But what was indeed strange was the fact that
whenever the gods chose to plague him with that nightmare, there were always additions. The laceration on Helena's face and the attack by the Negirrel were the latest additions.

"Are you okay?"

Marcus looked up sharply and saw Malzene looming over him. Marcus had been too deep in thought to hear the other man open the door and walk up to him.

"I... I am fine. When did you come?"

"Just now," Malzene replied. "You had a nightmare. Right?"

"Er - yes, how did you know that?"

"I heard you scream," Malzene disclosed. "Do you want to talk about it?"

Marcus nodded and then proceeded to recount the dream in detail to Malzene, who listened with rapt attention.

"Hmm," Malzene sighed as soon as Marcus finished. "This dream is
recurrent. Right?"

"Yes."

"Good. It is a message from the gods."

"A message?"

"Yes. They want you to prepare yourself because there are tough times ahead."

Here we go again, Marcus thought.

Malzene continued. "The dream is a proof that the Negirrel will return for another attack. This time it will be far stronger and deadlier than the first time. I told you that before. Didn't I?"

"Yes. What about Helena?"

"You will soon be reunited with her. . ."

"And what?" Marcus pressed on.

"And nothing."

"Will she be safe?"

"I really can't say. Maybe the next dream you'll have will make things clearer," Malzene confessed.

"Are you not a clairvoyant? Can't you look into the future and tell me what you see?"

"You need to understand, boy, that a seer, no matter how powerful, cannot see what the gods have witheld from him. In this case, the gods have shown me nothing."

"But you just told me a part of the future."

"I didn't see it myself. I merely interpreted your dream."

Marcus nodded in resignation. For perhaps the first time in his life, he
regretted leaving his simple life with his brothers in the praire for
this place. He had been attracted by the glitz and glamour of
knighthood. Now he truly realised that not all that glisters is gold.

"Don't be hard on yourself son," Malzene adviced, as if he had read
Marcus' mind. May he had. "You actually did the right thing abandoning the life of mediocrity in the praire to come here. You are destined for greatness. Never forget that."

***
Sir Millicent held the gazes of the three pairs of eyes in front of
him as he stood motionlessly in the middle of the crypt, the underground room under Lady Suzannah's chamber. He saw one thing in all of them - anticipation.
His people were anxious to hear him out.

"I called this meeting for us to discuss the various plans and
strategies we are going to employ in achieving our cause, our noble
cause," Sir Millicent said in his characteristic melliflous voice. "I
would like us to first discuss the strength of our underground army. Finn?"

The burly, clean shaven man eased to his feet. "The total number of men I have gathered in our Cevout stronghold is a little shy of three thousand and I'm very sure we have enough weaponry and supplies to last us the war."

"Three thousand rebels? That's very good. Lord Bradeigh?"

"Sir Millicent, I must tell you are more loved in this land than you
can imagine."

Sir Millicent chuckled. "Why do you say that?"

"Every noble that I talked to was ready to join our cause. They all
promised to give us the men in the capacity. From the look of things, we should be able to get twelve thousand well trained men."

"Awesome!" Sir Millicent exclaimed. "What about weapons?"

"We are already smuggling them in from the East."

"Excellent! Lady Sue?"

"I have five thousand and five hundred battle ready, immortal
soldires," She drawled.

"Immortals?" Lord Bradeigh and Finn echoed in surprise.

"Yes," Lady Suzannah said with a lofty smile. "I'ld prefer to have the called phantoms."

"Um. Are they completely servile?" Lord Bradeigh inquired.

"Don't worry. I have them under control," Lady Suzannah assured him.

"Okay, so we have around twenty thousand men. That's far greater than I initially envisaged," Sir Millicent said. "Now that we have analysed our strength. Let's talk about the strength of
our enemy."

"Nothing to talk about. The King has nobody, save the handful of men guarding the citadel," Finn offered.

"No, that's not true." Lord Bradeigh protested. "We have the Knights of the Realm under Sir Tremor to deal with and also the real army of the empire."

vantee nice christmas gift. hope the story is back to??

"The bulk of the army is tied up at the Rhodes frontier and Tremor is
under our control, so I think Finn is right," Lady Suzannah opined.

"What about the other knights? Sir Tremor is not the only knight,"
Lord Bradeigh countered. "Sir Sylvain, for example, is just as deadly as Sir Tremor."

"I'm still of the opinion that the other Knights will be easier to
deal with since Tremor is out of the way," Lady Suzannah maintained.

"Okay, I will suggest we block the army with half of Lord Bradeigh's
men, the remaining half will attack the army garrisons across the empire, then Finn's troops will deal with the Knights of the realm," Sir Millicent said. "Do we all agree?"

Lord Bradeigh and Finn gave consent, but Lady Suzannah did not, yet.

"What about my phantoms?" She asked.

"They will do the bulk of the job. They will attack the citadel and
once they win it, our aim is achieved."

"Sounds easy. Far too easy," Lord Bradeigh remarked.

"It should be that easy if we can manage to nullify the few threats we have before we kickstart our plans."

"Threats?" Lord Bradeigh repeated.

"Yes, we do have threats," Sir Millicent replied.

"One that readily comes to mind is the Prince."

"I have sent a Negirrel to take him out, he can't escape death," Lady
Suzannah announced.

"Even if he does, he will fall into my men's hands. They have laid a
trap for him through his girlfriend," Finn added.

"That's good. Then another one is Malzene D'Aubriere. I heard he is a
great sorcerer who likes to throw himself into the mix when least
expected," Sir Millicent opined.

Lady Suzannah sniggered. "If Malzene is a great sorcerer, then what am I? Sorcery itself? See,
I know Malzene very well. He is only a magician, a petty one at that. He is unworthy of the title sorcerer. If he tries any thing silly, I will break into him half with a twerk of my finger."

She continued. "The only one person I consider as a threat to us is that boy that played Sir Maxime at the recent tournament. He is the only one that is capable of distrupting our laid down plans."

"What do we do about him?" Sir Millicent asked his cohorts.

"I will suggest that we send the phantoms to destroy him,"
Lord Bradeigh offered.

"Good idea," Sir Millicent said. "Do we all agree?"

"Yes," Finn and Lady Suzannah answered in unison.

"Good," The Svelte knight said.
"This meeting is adjourned."

"Why? We haven't delibrated on the time to strike," Lord Bradeigh reminded him.

"We can't strike until we are sure that Galleine and Marcus are out of the way," Sir Millicent explained.

Lord Bradeigh nodded in acceptance and then he rose to his feet, unsheathed his sword and raised it in the air.

"To the fall of the current empire and the rise of a new one."

"Aye!"

***
"Look!" Sir Claude, the Frank, yelled suddenly, taking his companions, Sir Harding and Prince Galleine completely by surprise.

"Look what?" Prince Galleine asked.

"Over there," Sir Claude replied, pointing out the eight rebels coming down the mountain to his companions.

"I can't see Melissa," The Prince said as he trained his eyes on the
approaching party. He had to admit he was feeling edgy. Too edgy for his liking.

"Don't worry sire. Everything will be fine," Sir Harding assured him.

"Oh please, don't tell me that," Prince Galleine said. "The last time you said something to that effect, we all ended being flattened by some crazy beast."

Inspite of the huge tension in the air, Sirs Harding and Claude had the heart to laugh at the Prince's caustic joke. Presently, the rebel party got to the plain of Sahmmbisserh where the Prince and his companions waited for them on horseback.

"You came early. That's good. I like punctual people," Dunstan, the long haired leader of the troop said with a crooked smile on his grossly disfigured face.

"Where is she?" The Prince barked his question.

"You want us to start business immediately? I like that."
Dunstan said in jest. "Where is the money?"

Prince Galleine signed to Sir Claude and the knight quickly went to retrieve a bagful of Ciblis from among the supplies.

"This is it," The Prince said, opening the bag and letting two
gold coin drop unto his hands.

Dunstan's eyes shone with greed. "Are you sure it's not fake?"

"Of course, it's not," Prince Galleine replied, handing him a coin as proof.

"Okay, it's not fake. I like that," Dunstan remarked.

Then he turned to his men. "Okay boys, he has shown us the money, now show him the girl."

Neither the Prince nor his two companions could have anticipated what happened next as the all rebels, save Dunstan, unsheathed their sword and charged at the Knights.

"I knew it. B*stards!" The Prince yelled as he pulled out his own sword and ran forward to meet his adversaries.

Dunstan stared in horror as the Prince beheaded the first rebel that came his way. Sir Harding toed the same path by burying his sword in the head of another rebel. Sir Claude was no less lethal with his sword as he fended off an attack from a rebel and promptly plunged his double edged sword in the rebel's groin.

"Why the hell are you holding back? Kill them, you fo*ols!" Dunstan yelled at the remaining four rebels.

vantee i swea ds is really really awesome

The four rebels rushed towards the three knights, goaded on by their leader's rebuke. But they were not prepared for what they met as the Knights counterattacked them ferociously. After a lot of serious whacking, slashing, plunging, hacking and the likes, the knights overcame the rebels.

"Bravo," Dunstan clapped his hands. "I really underestimated you. Especially you, the Prince. You are not the sissy I thought. I like that."

"Show me Melissa now or I will LIKE you to join your men on the floor and in hell," The Prince said through gritted teeth. He was obviously galled by Dunstan's annoying use of like and his despicable mannerism. His tone suggested that if other man did not comply, he would promptly take his head off.

Dunstan laughed mirthlessly. "You are so impatient to see her? Okay then. Look over there, that's where she is."

Prince Galleine promptly turned in the direction that Dunstan pointed to him and saw something that shocked him beyond measure. There were over two hundred men standing on the slope of the mountain with more than half of them being archers.

"Do you see, my friend, that I'm the one in control here?"

The Prince wiped the beads of perspiration that was beginning to cascade down his forehead with the sleeve of his fur coat. "What do you want?"

"You . . . I want you," Dunstan replied with a wide grin slapped on his face.





To be continued. . .

something makes u apy wen u realise dat d boss is back!

Whew! Finally broke this jinx. I can spot a few typos up there, but I cannot modify them else I'll get banned and the post will get hidden immediately.

I have to thank everyone that stood by me in those trying times. I really appreciate your efforts.

Tags: Easy4reel, BabieGhagha, Oluwafunmilayo95, stuff46, marian17, mariemummy, Kizzykeziah, kingphillip, Kennybix, Dsparker, lexayfdg, donphill, iphex, emarkson, faithgokz, tovot, iebanehita, Larrysun, therock5555, nick16, buccal, haydot95, aydesmond and others whose username I cannot remember as I type this.
Thank you all.

stuff46:
vantee i swea ds is really really awesome

Thank you sir .

donPhill:
vantee....we re in gr8 suspense....help us out

Ayaf updated sir. I hope you'll enjoy the new installment.

lexaydfg:
V.T ar u done wf ds story, its bin a while u update

Through with the story ke? No o. There are more chapters left than you can imagine.

BabieGhagha:
pls dnt abandon dis story.biko!.i really can't wait 4 continuity

I have no intention of abandoning the story. The story is back on track.

iphex:
Hmmm

What is that sir?

Easy4reel:
something makes u apy wen u realise dat d boss is back!

Lol. Thanks boss.

great one boss
continue the gud work

VanTee20:
Whew! Finally broke this jinx. I can spot a few typos up there, but I cannot modify them else I'll get banned and the post will get hidden immediately.

I have to thank everyone that stood by me in those trying times. I really appreciate your efforts.

Tags: Easy4reel, BabieGhagha, Oluwafunmilayo95, stuff46, marian17, mariemummy, Kizzykeziah, kingphillip, Kennybix, Dsparker, lexayfdg, donphill, iphex, emarkson, faithgokz, tovot, iebanehita, Larrysun, therock5555 and others whose username I cannot remember as I type this.
Thank you all.

*jumps into thread* ahhhhhh Sir Vantee is back. Thank God those trying periods are over. Though you didnt mention mua. Ita alright. Yeah noticed the typos. I have a question pla, maybe i missed it somewhere

How did Lady Suz and her cohorts know that it was Marcus that was in sir Maxime attire?

Merry Christmas

mariemummy:



*jumps into thread* ahhhhhh Sir Vantee is back. Thank God those trying periods are over. Though you didnt mention mua. Ita alright. Yeah noticed the typos. I have a question pla, maybe i missed it somewhere

How did Lady Suz and her cohorts know that it was Marcus that was in sir Maxime attire?

Merry Christmas

How can I forget to mention you, one of the most active commentators on this thread? I dey craze neh? I did mention you. Maybe you missed it somehow, it happens sometimes.

@bolded. I don't know too oh. Maybe it's because Lady Sue is a powerful sorceress and she'd discovered the fact about Sir Maxime's true identity just as she had found out Sir Millicent's plans to overthrow the King without him telling her..

The same to you ma'am.

kingphilip:
great one boss
continue the gud work

.

Thank you sir.

'Sahmmbisserh'. You mean sambisa huh

Fatalveli:
'Sahmmbisserh'. You mean sambisa huh

In a way, yes .

VanTee20:


Through with the story ke? No o. There are more chapters left than you can imagine.

pls ride on with ur story.
weldone sir